Left Coast Events Bulletin with Janine Bandcroft March 1, 2018

This events bulletin is produced weekly for Gorilla Radio, airing Thursdays 11-noon and Saturdays 8-9 am from CFUV (http://cfuv.uvic.ca) and Mondays 9-10 am from CJSF (http://cjsf.ca). You can also listen to the podcasts at http://www.gorilla-radio.com.
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Violence Against the Land is Violence Against Women: Climate Justice
clock Thursday at 13:00–14:30
2 days from now

pin Facebook Live @indigenousclimateaction

No Consent Trudeau – No Man Camps on Stolen Native Land

Climate change has caused us to take a look at ourselves and reevaluate our relationship with each other, our communities and the land. Indigenous communities continue to be at the forefront of not just experiencing climate change but at the heart of the fight against the causes of climate change.

Women are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and Indigenous women are more likely to experience sexual and physical violence in their lifetime. This webinar explores how violence against the land through the extraction and exploitation of resources and fossil fuels perpetuates violence against women. Resources taken from our lands contaminates the environment and damages eco-systems all while increasing greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere which worsening climate change. However, these projects also come along with “Man Camps” (temporary labour force camps) that result in increased sex trafficking, drugs, crimes and ultimately violence against women.

In this webinar Kanahus Manuel, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, and Eriel Deranger will discuss how when we speak about climate justice, we must also address gender justice. We will not find solutions to climate change unless we can address the legacy of violence against Indigenous women and climate change together.

About Our Speakers

Melina Laboucan-Massimo:

Melina Laboucan-Massimo is a member of the Lubicon Cree in Alberta. She has worked on social, environmental and climate justice for the past 15 years. Melina has worked, studied and campaigned in Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Canada and across Europe focusing on resource extraction, climate change, media literacy and Indigenous rights & responsibilities. Currently, a Fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation, Melina’s focus is on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. Facing the firsthand impacts of the Alberta tar sands in her home community, Melina has been a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. For over a decade, Melina worked as a Climate and Energy Campaigner with Greenpeace Canada and the Indigenous Environmental Network internationally. She has written for a variety of publications and produced short documentaries on the tar sands, just transition, water issues and Indigenous cultural revitalization.

Melina also works on the issue of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in Canada after the suspicious death of her sister Bella, whose case still remains unsolved. Melina holds a Masters degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy in Indigenous communities. She recently helped to solarize the Tiny House Warriors and will continue to build more solar projects in Indigenous communities this coming year. Most recently, Melina is hosting a new TV series called Power to the People which documents renewable energy, food security and eco-housing in Indigenous communities across North America.

Kanahus Manuel:

Kanahus Manuel, Secwepemc and Ktunaxa, is member of the Secwepemc Women Warriors Society, a mother of 4 and a twin (her unceded Territory lies within so-called British Columbia, Canada), she was born into Indigenous Resistance and Land Defence, coming from a high-profile political family known for bringing their fight for their Traditional Territories and homelands into the spotlight from the local to the international level. Kanahus’ inheritance of the land struggle has led her to take a leadership role on many Indigenous grassroots frontlines.

She is well known for her activism and direct actions against Sun Peaks Ski Resort, Imperial Metals, the Mount Polley mine disaster and was arrested with the water protectors at Standing Rock. She is currently playing a leadership role in fighting the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion through more than 500 km of Secwepemc territory. In a creative form of pipeline resistance, Kanahus’ and her community spearheaded the Tiny House Warriors: Our Land is Home, building 10 tiny houses to place in the path of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. As a result of her activism, she has been named in several court injunctions and has been jailed by the Canadian state.

Kanahus along with the Secwepemc Women Warriors Society and Tiny House Warriors issued the Secwepemc Women’s Declaration Against the Kinder Morgan Man Camps, that calls for the halt of the construction of an industrial Kinder Morgan man camp threatening to bring 1000 pipeline construction workers, which are majority men into Blue River, BC, the heart of Secwepemc Territory. These man camps have a direct connection to the increase in the violence against women, including sexual assaults and rape.

Eriel Deranger:

Eriel is a founding member and the premiere Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action (ICA). Deranger is a Denesuline woman and member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), a nation located downstream from the Alberta Tar Sands, the largest industrial project on Earth. Deranger spent 6 years working for her Nation helping to developed strategic communications and campaigns to challenge the expansion of tar sands into their traditional territory. Eriel and the ACFN are internationally recognized for their influence on delaying multiple tar sands projects through countless interventions in the regulatory process, courts, shareholder actions and direct action.

Deranger has a far-reaching reputation for challenging fossil fuel development and championing the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and advocating for the indigenous rights.
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Eriel has an extensive experience working within the Environmental Justice and Indigenous Rights field with organizations like the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Sierra Club, and with her home Nation the ACFN. She is also a wife and mother of two.

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Policing Black Lives Book Launch
march 1st
clock Thursday at 18:00–21:00
3 days from now

“This book should be read not only by those who have a specific interest in Canadian histories and social justice movements but by anyone interested in the abolitionist and revolutionary potential of the Black Lives Matters movement more broadly.”
– ANGELA DAVIS

“Part of what makes this book so unique is that Maynard compiles attention to children in the welfare system, gender, sexual violence and immigration as a form of state sanctioned violence in Canada.”
– review by AFROPUNK

Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present is a comprehensive account of nearly four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black life in Canada. While highlighting the ubiquity of Black resistance, Policing Black Lives traces the still-living legacy of slavery across multiple institutions, shedding light on the social and historical forces behind Black poverty and unemployment, racial profiling, police violence, disproportionate incarceration, immigration detention and deportation, exploitative migrant labour practices, disproportionate child removal and the school-to-prison pipeline.

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ROBYN MAYNARD
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Robyn Maynard is a Black feminist author, grassroots community organizer and independent scholar based in Montréal. She has been a part of movements against racial profiling and police violence for over a decade and has an extensive background in community work doing harm-reduction outreach.

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On march 1 joined by:
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* TERRITORIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT by CECILIA POINT: Cecilia Point is a member of the Musqueam Nation and a land defender, sovereigntist and political activist who stood for 200 plus days protecting her nation’s ancestral burial site from development in 2012. She has taken part in countless political actions advocating for human rights, the environment and cultural preservation of her nation.

* CICELY BLAIN: Cicely Blain is writer, facilitator and activist originally from London, UK. They run a consulting agency, Cicely Blain Consulting, encouraging organizations to foster safer spaces and accessible environments. They are a founder of Black Lives Matter, Vancouver as well as a columnist for Daily Xtra and The Body is Not An Apology. They are also a sub-editor at Beyond the Binary, UK-based magazine for trans and non-binary people. Cicely is the 2017 winner of the CCPA Power of Youth Leadership Awards in Social Movement Building for their contributions to LGBTQ rights and the Black liberation movement.

* JILLIAN CHRISTMAS serves as Artistic Director of Versəs Festival of Words. Jillian is an enthusiastic organizer and activist in the Canadian arts community, her focus being to increase anti-oppression initiatives in spoken word.

* KHARI WENDELL MCCLELLAND is a diversely talented and ever-evolving artist, with reviewers lauding his performances as a clever mix of soul and gospel. Khari’s songwriting crosses genres and generations, joyfully invoking the spirit of his ancestors who straddled the US-Canadian border in efforts to escape slavery and discrimination.

* LAMA MUGABO is a Community Organizer at the Carnegie Community Action Project and member of Our Homes Cain’t Wait coalition, advocating for housing, social justice and poverty alleviation in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He serves on the Hogan’s Alley Working Group, an initiative to promote the revitalization of Hogan’s Alley, the Black community destroyed by Vancouver’s urban renewal policy in 1972.

* RUBY SMITH DIAZ has found her passion working as a youth facilitator, personal trainer, video editor and multi-disciplinary artist. She uses art and popular education as tools for activism, empowerment, and community building.

Join UBC Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and the Social Justice Centre in a discussion with Gaza-born Palestinian Dr. Ramzy Baroud as he discusses the Palestine Chronicle, his forthcoming book: The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story, and the urgent need to situate Palestinian refugees back at the centre of Palestinian discourse. He will also cover contemporary issues facing the Palestinian movement and the current conditions of Gaza.

About the Speaker:
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This event is being hosted on the unceded lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

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Giving the Palestinian refugees a voice

Ramzy Baroud, author of My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story

presents his new book: The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story

Friday March 2, 2018 7:00pm
University of Victoria
David Strong Bldg. Rm C116

Sponsored by Social Justice Studies, UVic

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Peace Bond
march 2nd
clock Friday at 12:00–14:00
4 days from now · 1–5° Cloudy

pin David Eby
2909 West Broadway, Vancouver, British Columbia V6K2G6

We are gathering on Fridays to remind BC’s Attorney General to honour Treaty 8, respect Indigenous law and to enforce the Crown’s duty to protect the Peace from settler colonial violence and treaty violations.

FightC is a non-partisan, non-violent grassroots community group committed to stopping the Site C dam in solidarity with the Treaty 8 First Nations. All who love and respect the Peace are welcome to join us.

We acknowledge that this free assembly takes place on the Unceded Territory of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish Nations.

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Tiny House Warrior Album Release at the Rickshaw
friday
clock 2 March at 19:30–1:00
2 March at 19:30 to 3 March at 1:00

The Tiny House Warriors are one of the forefront indigenous movements resisting the Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion. 30+ artists have come together for this album to support the building of 10 mobile tiny houses which will block pipeline construction on Secwepemc territory as well as provide spaces for indigenous entrepreneurs and elders.

SCREEN PRINTS & ART PRINTS OF THW ALBUM ART.
The resistance art of Jackie Fawn Illustrations will be for sale as well as some on-site screen printing. No CDs, just download codes of the album with RESISTANCE ARTWORK.

This is an informative session on what it takes to produce an amendment for your garden that is rich in beneficial microorganisms and nutrients! We’ll cover the 6 factors for composting success, how to choose the best composting system for your needs and how to increase the rodent resistance of your compost pile.

Free attendance to this workshop is generously subsidized by the CRD

The Compost Education Centre is located on unceded and occupied Indigenous territories, specifically the land of the Lekwungen speaking people—the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. These nations are two of many, made up of individuals who have lived within the porous boundaries of what is considered Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Kwakwa’wakw Territory (Vancouver Island) since time immemorial. At the CEC we seek to respect, honour and continually grow our own understandings of Indigenous rights and history, and to fulfill our responsibilities as settlers, who live and work directly with the land and its complex, vital ecologies and our diverse, evolving communities.

Compost Education Centre memberships get you free workshops, discounts at garden centres around town and more great perks! Sign up or learn more on our website.
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Liberation BC is back in action ~ not that we went anywhere ~ and we are going to be a bigger presence in the animal rights community going forward. We wanted to kick 2018 off with a party! A party to celebrate all the incredible local organizations, groups and humans that work so hard to achieve total animal liberation. We are inviting all those organizations so attend our party, but also send a representative specifically to do little mini presentations to the attendees explaining what they are all about and what is to come for 2018. We are so lucky to have PlantBase Food and Natural Products cater for us!

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Social Justice Law Conference 2018
march 3rd
clock Saturday at 8:30–16:30
4 days from now · 0–6° Scattered Clouds

2018 Social Justice Law Conference: The Role of the Legal Community in Supporting Social Movements

This year’s Social Justice Law Conference builds on the commitments made at previous conferences to develop and support access to justice in BC and to enhance the specialized skills that lawyers, legal advocates, and law students need for practicing in social justice fields of law. This day long conference provides an excellent opportunity for networking, professional development, and discussing current issues.

Recorded Keynote Address by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond: “Transforming Advocacy—how being an advocate in a complicated and often exclusionary system takes truth-telling and doubling-down on social justice”
• Due to unforeseen circumstances, the keynote address will be pre-recorded and shared via video

This event will take place on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Heritage Hall is wheelchair-accessible, including a non-stairs entrance and an accessible gender-neutral bathroom. Sign language translation may be available upon request.

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Surrey: Sanctuary City, Not Detention City
sunday
4 March at 13:00–16:00
Next Week

The Government of Canada has signed a contract with an engineering company to build a New Immigration Detention Centre in Surrey at 13130-76 Avenue as a part of its infrastructure development plan. It is expected to be completed by November 2018 to replace the current holding center at the Vancouver airport and minimize the practice of placing immigrants/refugees in prisons. The detention of refugees with common criminals, for which Canada is conspicuous in the world, has been condemned by the UNHRC.

While the government promises profits to businesses, jobs to workers and taxes to the city, we need to understand the significance of detaining “immigrants, “the word used to cover refugees, who generate public sympathy, in the context of the larger world. The issue of the treatment of refugees by national governments has become extremely urgent in a world that currently has 22 million refugees according to the UN. This number can only grow as wars and climate change—and climate change induced wars—drive more and more people desperately to seek safety and livelihood far from their burnt, bombed, and abandoned homes. We are all aware of the droughts, wars and genocides that have driven millions to flee from Africa, Syria, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.

Governments across the world have responded to this by creating barriers and adopting coercive measures, often in response to anti-immigrant popular movements, as we see in the US, Europe, particularly Central and Eastern Europe, and India. However, against this right-wing populism there has been the resistance of people with generous hearts who have opened their homes and purses for the succor of fellow human beings and established cities of sanctuary. We have seen this Canada in response to the refugees from Syria.

We need to be a part of this ethical politics of hospitality and welcome rather than incarcerate refugees. We must resist the labelling of refugees as “immigrant” or “illegal immigrant” to rationalize repression and block the gates of compassion. Particularly in the city of Surrey which is proud of its diversity we should build a sanctuary city and not allow the construction of detention centers.

PRESENTERS:

Chelliah Premarajah is a member of SANSAD, and Amnesty International. He is also a retired health care worker and life-long activist in the labor movement, a life member and former president of Tamil Cultural Association of BC, currently the secretary of BC seniors Shanthi Nilayam, and a member of the Outreach & Social justice committee of Gilmore Park United Church, which co sponsored Guatamala, Afghan and currently Syrian refugees.

Harsha Walia is a cofounder of the migrant justice group No One Is Illegal, author of the award-winning book Undoing Border Imperialism, and Project Coordinator at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center. For the past two decades she has been involved in immigrant and refugee rights including supporting migrant detainees, and campaigns against immigration detention, deaths in detention, children in detention, and arbitrary detention at the local and national level. She has co-authored multiple reports and articles on migrant and refugee issues in Canada, and presented to the United Nations on immigration detention in Canada.

Mohammad Zaman is an international development/resettlement specialist. He recently has written a number of articles on Rohingya refugees in papers in Bangladesh and Canada.

Sejal Lal is a musician and activist in human rights, South Asian youth issues, and indigenous support.

Organized by South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), www.sansad.org

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Creating Safe and Compelling Environments: Is It Possible?
monday
clock 5 March at 12:00–13:00
Next Week · 2–6° Partly cloudy

pin City of Victoria – Local Government
1 Centennial Square, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 1N8

Community safety and crime reduction continues to be a high priority in cities across North America and there has been a tendency to lean towards fortifying properties in many designs. Are these the kind of cities we want and are they compelling? As community stewards can we explore the possibility of creating stylish, exciting, safe, supportive and welcoming environments?

Over the past 25 years Steve Woolrich has established a reputation for excellence in policing, corrections and corporate security and is the principle of Rethink Urban Inc.

Researchers from the School of Public Health and Social Policy, with funding from the Victoria Foundation, set out to uncover how Victoria residents with different visible and invisible disabilities navigate everyday life, what di culties they encounter, and what supports are available to make their lives easier, better.

HSD will get the conversation started with findings from the first-ever Greater Victoria disability survey which addresses matters on equity, inclusion, and assistive technologies, employment, among others.

Host: Michael Hayes, Director, School of Public Health and Social Policy Panelists: Nigel Livingston, professor, School of Public Health and Social Policy | Veronica Carroll, Children’s Health Foundation
Sandra Richardson, Victoria Foundation | Michael Prince, School of Public Health and Social Policy

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